Automotive

Automotive A/C Charging in Brazil

In 2008 the Brazilian plant of one of the big three US auto-makers purchased a VTech Auto Customized refrigerant charger to be integrated in an existing assembly line, replacing an older machine.

The process requirement included the following cycles:

• nitrogen flushing
• pressure decay leak test
• evacuation
• vacuum decay leak test
• R134 charge
• refrigerant recovery from the service hoses connected to the high and low side

However, the same machine was also intended to work on a repair line. In this case, in addition to the cycle as above, the machine had to recover refrigerant from the compressor and separate it from the compressor oil, measure the quantity of the recovered oil, and finally recharge the compressor with new and recovered oil.

In addition, the machine specification called for custom mechanical/electrical/pneumatic components to be used. Referring to the view of the machine cabinet interior at right, from the bottom left section the following components are shown:

• refrigerant recovery unit with oil distillation
• oil charging pump oil reservoir with load cell

In the top section we can see:

• mass-flow metering device with Siemens PLC